Region-wide food banks are ‘stretched to the limit’

WASHINGTON – For many people, 2012 has been a tough year. A stagnant economy and an unemployment rate that hasn’t gone down much has made it hard for some people to find something to eat.

“We’ve been stretched to the limit,” says Grant Thompson, interim CEO at the Capital Area Food Bank which serves 720 different agencies supplying food in D.C., Maryland and Northern Virginia.

They have been able to meet the need around the holidays when demand is highest because many kids, on winter break, are not getting lunch at school, Thompson says. And he adds, it could get worse in January.

“During the heart of the winter is the time that we need food donations, we need money donations and we need worker donations,” Thompson says.

The Capital Area Food Bank has many people seeking help with food who have never done so before, some of them working two part jobs which still won’t make ends meet.

In some cases, Thompson says, grandmas are going without their medication or food for themselves, just to feed their grandchildren, he says.

The food bank has a new facility on Puerto Rico Avenue in D.C. and another one in Lorton. Thompson says they are hoping donations of food, money and volunteers, pick up in January.